Vanity Fair editor compares Gwyneth Paltrow to North Korean dictator

Graydon Carter, editor of the ‘celebrity bible’, breaks silence over feud with
actress after she urged showbusiness friends to boycott the magazine because
of ‘epic takedown’ report

Gwyneth PaltrowPhoto: GETTY IMAGES

By Philip Sherwell, New York

10:06PM GMT 04 Feb 2014

In the latest twist to one of the most bitter feuds in the celebrity world, Graydon Carter, the editor of Vanity Fair, has accused Gywneth Paltrow of behaving like North Korea’s dictator by urging friends never to speak to the magazine again.

Ms Paltrow went on the offensive after it was reported that the prestigious publication was planning an “epic takedown”, including embarrassing revelations about her personal life.

What emerged instead was an epic feud that has been the talk of American showbusiness circles. Mr Carter has now gone public for the first time about the row in an editor’s letter in the forthcoming Hollywood edition of a magazine often dubbed the “celebrity bible”.

He notes that “what began so innocently quickly took a turn" when the magazine’s writer contacted representatives and friends of Ms Paltrow, a regular Vanity Fair cover-girl before the fall-out.

“She asked that they not speak to Vanity Fair about her, or about anything else ever again,” he writes. “Ever. Never. Kim Jong-un couldn’t have issued a more blanket demand.”

At the height of the “takedown” speculation, Ms Paltrow, who is married to Chris Martin, the British singer, denied that she had an affair with Jeff Sofer, a Florida billionaire now married to Elle Macpherson.

The writer delivered a “delightfully written” piece that “was such a far cry from the almost mythical story that people were by now expecting - the 'epic takedown,' filled with 'bombshell' revelations - that it was bound to be a disappointment”, Mr Carter explains

So he “decided to sit on it for a time”, an editorial decision that prompted criticism that he had caved to pressure from Ms Paltrow. He said that at one stage, she called him during the "will it or won't it run" controversy and even asked for his advice on how to win round the “haters”.

He jokingly suggested that she put on 15 pounds, saying that worked for him. The actress responded that he had acquired more weight than that. Verbal jousting aside, Ms Paltrow has since insisted the feud is over.